Of Tea and Talks
by Celestia0909
Summary: Sometimes, a cup of tea can salve any problem. It helps if the person you love is with you too! (Post Battle of Hogwarts)


**Of Tea and Talks**

[A/N at the end]

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Harry woke from his slumber drenched in sweat. A light, cool breeze filtered through the window of Ron's room. He was soon shivering, sweat turned cold, and pulled the blanket closer around him again. It took him several long minutes of twisting and turning for him to realise he wouldn't fall back asleep.

Ron snored in the bed next to him and Harry quietly put his slippers and robe on. Shutting the door behind him, he ambled down the crooked flight of stairs and stopped every few seconds or so to look at the family pictures on the wall.

Faces upon faces of redheaded men, women, and children greeted and waved at him from their portraits until he entered the kitchen and sat down at the huge wooden dining table. The Burrow was silent as he took a sip of water and the full moon cast dark shadows inside the house. When he was five and first locked in a cupboard, he was afraid of the dark. But now? What was the dark in comparison to the things he'd faced?

Since the war had ended, and he had come to live with the Weasleys', everything felt _off_. It was as if the world had shifted one degree, everything and everyone in his life with it. After the initial shock had worn off, he had felt an overwhelming sense of guilt and pain every waking hour of the day. Pain at all those he had lost, and guilt for his part played in their deaths. The world seemed a little colder and less colourful, and eventually the guilt gave way to anger and frustration. There was nothing he could do - he couldn't reverse what had happened, but it didn't stop him from wishing he could save them all.

There was an itch underneath his skin that made him restless, angry, and generally unpleasant to be around. It was like he was wearing that cursed necklace everyday all over again. He wanted to tear his skin apart, free himself from everything he had been through, so that things could just go back to normal.

The people that had died hadn't deserved to and he desperately wanted to take their place. He had visited Teddy and Andromeda today and he wished that he could've died instead of Remus and Tonks. It seemed to him that all that was left was death and decay, infecting everything beautiful in the world. He didn't know how to move forward. There were things he'd seen and done that were unforgivable. There were things that he would never be able to move past, and things that would haunt his dreams and thoughts forever.

Waking up in the middle of the night was a normal occurrence and the nightmares that plagued him seemed to only be getting more and more devastating. The dreams weakened him and, during the day, he walked around in a trance; talking to people but never really paying attention, feeling alone despite the bustling house of activity.

Tonight, he had dreamt that _he_ was Voldemort. That the part of Tom inside him had never been destroyed, and that _he_ had killed everyone he loved. He'd woken up as he'd raised his wand at Ginny.

"You're up early," a teasing and familiar voice remarked, footsteps following. "Want some tea?" Harry nodded. The storm inside him eased for a precious few moments as she walked past and he caught a whiff of her vanilla scented lotion.

Harry adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose and watched as the redheaded girl – _no, woman_ – prepared a large pot of tea. With a wave of her wand she conjured a tray; a teapot, a pair of teacups, milk, and sugar drifted to and sat. Another flick and the tray hovered to the table as she took a seat opposite him.

"Thanks, Gin." He took the small pourer of tea from her and Ginny's hand twitched as their fingers touched for a fraction of a second.

They drank their tea slowly while Harry's heart beat frantically in his chest. There were a million and one things that he wanted to say to her; but when he tried to come out with it, nothing would happen and he just choked on his words. Not for the first time did Harry hate the silence around him. Though, for an entirely different reason.

"D'you want some hobnobs?"

"Yeah, alright," he replied nervously. She nodded and rummaged around a cupboard before coming back to the table and setting the packet between them. Again, their fingers touched as they both reached for a biscuit and Harry's heart raced.

The longer they sat with their tea, the only sound being the clink of their cup being set on the table and the crunch of them chewing their biscuits, the more Harry's restlessness eased. The terrible monster that raged inside him, a reminder of the things he'd seen, done, gone through, and been a part of, calmed as he drank his tea. But mostly it was because of Ginny, and just being near her. It always came down to that.

Her hair was just as long and wild as it had been when they were together at Hogwarts, and Harry's fingers itched to run through the strands. The camisole she wore left little to his imagination, and the expanse of creamy freckled skin contrasted against the dark material. He didn't know when she had _grown_ to be a woman and he was reminded of how long he'd spent away from her. _Of course she had grown_ _up, life didn't stop when you were out hunting for horcruxes,_ he reminded himself.

He didn't know how long they sat there, just basking in one another's presence. It was a comfort, after the horrors of the war they'd both fought in, to be _able_ to sit in the same room and just _be_ there, together.

Eventually, though, the stars shone ever brighter in the darkening night sky and both he and Ginny had to give in to the languid haze of fatigue. They washed the teapot and cups in silence, drying and putting them away with only a few glances at one another before they ascended the flight of stairs.

At the landing of the first floor, as Ginny entered her room, Harry reached out and grabbed her wrist delicately. The familiar tingling of his hand as it touched her skin didn't go unnoticed and, for the first time in a while, he felt like there was hope yet for everything to go back to the way they were. But _better_.

"Tomorrow night?" he whispered into the silent void around them. The moon glowed through the window and Harry gazed into Ginny's warm brown eyes and _finally_ felt like he was home. Like he was himself. Like everything was going to be okay because they would be; it would be because of _her_.

"Tonight, actually," she whispered teasingly. Harry couldn't quite figure out why his stomach was raging but he was glad that it was the pleasant kind. He let go of her wrist reluctantly and smiled as he stepped away.

Before he could take another step up the stairs, he was floored when a pair of soft – yet chapped – lips brushed against his cheek lightly. It was almost like it hadn't happened at all but the soft click of a door closing told him that it had.

x

"You're late," Ginny muttered as Harry scraped the chair along the tiles and took a seat.

Ginny was wearing a silky blue robe that he'd stuffed into her Christmas stocking last month; her freckled collarbone peeked out from underneath and when she leaned forward to get a spoon of sugar he got an eyeful of what lay underneath.

"I know. I've got treacle cluster bombs, though." He held up the brown paper bag as a peace offering and he grinned when she eagerly snatched it out of his hand. "Am I forgiven?"

Ginny stuck a cluster into her mouth and moaned in delight as Harry watched on. She was obsessed with those things and he had nicked some from Ron's cupboard before coming down for their nightly tea talks. There was something about sitting together with a cup of tea that made him calm and he had readily welcomed their new little habit.

"How was your day?" she uttered softly. Her voice was hoarse and Harry noticed that she fidgeted with the tie of her dressing robe every now and then.

"Alright, I've finally managed to fix Sirius' motorbike." A familiar stab of pain attacked his heart as he mentioned his godfather, followed by a deadly sort of guilt at the reason why he had died in the first place.

"Good, you can take me out tomorrow then," she announced resolutely. Her shoulders were squared and there was something in her warm brown eyes that dared him to tell her otherwise. "You need to leave the house eventually; you look like shite."

"Thanks," he said flatly. She shrugged and continued munching on her clusters. "So what'd _you_ do today?"

Truthfully, he hated small talk. He just wanted to go back to when they would laugh and banter with one another. He longed to just wrap her in his arms and snog her senseless; but there were things that needed to be said, that needed to be fixed before they could go back to that easy little bubble of theirs.

"Harry?" He nodded and hummed. "What are we doing?"

"Having tea?" His heart beat a little faster in his chest as he avoided her question and received a tired look from her.

"You know what I mean."

 _What were they doing?_

He couldn't deny that there was something building between them and he was completely terrified of what it was and what it meant for them. Because, despite everything he had gone through, everything he had done and seen, he couldn't shake his feelings for Ginny Weasley.

He had tried to get over her, she deserved someone whole, after all. But there was an ugly green monster that clawed at his stomach when he thought of what that would entail. Someone else would have her if he didn't. And yet, he didn't want to ruin her by roping her into a relationship with him. He had broken it off once, and he was scared that the next time he'd let her go it'd be even more devastating.

But then again, he would never _need_ to let her go. The war was over, he had done what he needed to do and he owed nobody anything. He was free to do what he wanted and free to be with whomever he pleased - it just so happened that she was right here.

Abruptly, she reached out and held his hand in hers and tingles shot up his arm as her thumb stroked the back of his hand. He was the Boy Who Lived, and he couldn't even tell the woman he loved that he loved her. Ardently so.

"I miss moments like this more than anything," he choked out as he linked their fingers together atop the table. Her hands were a little rough and her nails were chipped from throwing quaffles around for years.

"I miss _you_."

"I'm right here Gin," he whispered as he shuffled his chair closer until their knees touched. "I've been waiting a long time to be here."

Something shifted in the air between them and Harry hoped that she understood what he really meant. Of course, knowing Ginny, she did. And as he leaned down to press a soft kiss on each of her hands, he knew that he'd never let her go again. He was just a man, sitting in front of a woman, trying to tell her wordlessly that he loved her.

He hoped that was enough. Because a life without her? It would be inconceivable.

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 **Author's Note**

 _Huge huge huge thank you to Alixx and 2D for beta-ing this piece! I honestly appreciate you gals so much xo_

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Word Count: 1,999

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 **Written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments)**

Assignment # 7

Subject: Arts and Crafts

Task: 3, Patchwork, Write about a couple trying to piece a relationship back together

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 **Written for the Houses Competition**

House: Ravenclaw

Category: Short

Prompt: [Speech] "I miss moments like this more than anything."

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I hope you all enjoyed this story x

Please don't forget to leave a short (or long) review.

I love love love reading them!

Until next time, Andy x


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